The Cape Town Central LibraryA Cultural & Dynamic Place for Anyone from Anywhere

WORDS Laure Perrier

Libraries are ‘the cornerstones of democracy’ says Pam Sandlian Smith in her Ted Talk. ‘It’s a place where everyone has a seat at the table and we treat everyone with the same respect and with dignity.’ However, in an age of digitisation where libraries are often undervalued or under-appreciated, South African libraries have to withstand government cuts and struggle to maintain their cultural influence in modern society.

As the first public library of the metropolis, the Cape Town Central Library seems to embody Smith’s ideas. Inside this yellow building, just a minute away from the City Town Hall, anybody can come in, read a book, listen to music, study, surf the internet or attend one of their many community events. In the midst of a digital era, where information often sits an arm’s length away, we thought we’d take the time to explore one of Western Cape’s most important and intellectual cultural hubs.

A historical & resourceful institution

The Central Library has moved several times before settling down in the Old Drill Hall in 2008. Now located only a few minutes away from the train station as well as other major cultural buildings, it has become a strategic location that helps attract larger, more diverse crowds. Photo: Laure Perrier

According to the State of Libraries in South Africa 2015, there are 1,612 public and community libraries, 243 prison libraries, 868 mobile libraries, 75 academic libraries and an undetermined number of school, research and special libraries in South Africa. The Western Cape Provincial Library Service is the biggest of the nine provincial services with 355 libraries and nearly 1.5 million registered library patrons.

‘They are all taken very seriously’ says Linda Nkata, the chief librarian of the Cape Town Central Library. The library first opened to the public in January 1955. After several temporary sites (Waaburg building from 1962–82, Cape Town’s City Hall from 1982–2008) it finally settled in the Old Drill Hall in 2008 thanks to the Carnegie Corporation and the help of the City of Cape Town.

Over the years, the library acquired a very large choice of resources. With approximately 40 full-time staff members, the library has specialised librarians for a variety of sections: art, music and children’s (with video and educational games). Roaming through the different alleys, you can discover books in all the 11 official languages of South Africa as well as in foreign languages. Linda Nkata explains that it is ‘one of the rare libraries where the public can find different sections with such huge collections.’

Roaming through the different alleys, you can discover books in all the 11 official languages of South Africa as well as in foreign languages. Linda Nkata explains that it is ‘one of the rare libraries where the public can find different sections with such huge collections.’

As she runs a public library with a decent budget (357,412 items were circulating in the library in 2015), Linda — with the help of two other senior librarians, tries to buy almost everything that comes in: ‘if there’s a book that is published, we go and buy it. If there’s a book that was made into a motion picture, the next day we buy it and we put in on. We want to catch up with almost everything that’s happening around the world’. Their hard work in sourcing an assortment of material helps attract many visitors with varying interests.

‘The library has very good documentation. It’s big, open to everyone and has a wide selection. I’m very satisfied and I usually find more things that I want,’ says Sibu Mbatha, a research student in history at UCT. She is not the only one to think so. Alex, a retired maths teacher comes to the library every day of the week to study because that’s where he finds the most material. He also tutors kids struggling in the subject such as Mpho — a high school student coming almost every day after school. She joyfully affirms: ‘there are plenty of books to read, all very different. I have a membership and I use the computers too. The Central Library is one of my favourite places in Cape Town’.

The library offers resources and books for all types of individuals. Children, teachers, learners and researchers alike can take a seat at the expansive wooden tables and read or surf the web for hours. Photo: Laure Perrier

Other students from CTU or UNISA spend several hours inside these doors studying the textbooks they can’t afford. The platform Smart Cape gives access to digital information as well as 60 computers are also available to the public unlike most other libraries in Western Cape which only ever have five or six. The Central Library seems like an ideal place to study and find all the best resources you need.

A lively place

Its appeal doesn’t end there. The Cape Town Central library launches many events throughout the year. From small talks to big reunions, employees take turns organising them, always supported by a marketing team creating graphics and videos to promote the events on social media.

Stacey Grod, who’s been working at the library for 30 years now, organises a diabetes testing in November and an AIDS talk in December. She says that most events are ‘linked to the community and follow themes directed to it.’ The different sections of the library also have their own events scheduled: FOCAL (Friends of the Central Library) organises a monthly poetry circle, the American Corner (with the help of the American Embassy) plans poetry slams and in the children’s library ‘something is going on all the time’ according to Stacey, for example the annual storytelling festival located in the Company’s Gardens.

The events often attract a big crowd and sometimes become internationally popular. In 2013, the library won the Guinness World Record for the longest domino line of books with 2,586 copies. In 2014, the ‘Pulp Fiction’ event took place: Central librarians created a maze out of over 80,000 donated books. The public can roam through the mazes and take books for free, which would otherwise have been thrown away.

The library also tries to create outreach programmes for visitors, such as drug abuse, HIV/AIDS and other health education. As Linda explains, ‘the library is big on programmes, we do everything as long as it’s going to be addressing the issues within our community’.

The Children’s Library offers its visitors a wide range of books, games and activities. The library often organises events for the kids to meet, to play and to learn. Photo: Laure Perrier

The library also works with outside institutions such as bookshops such as the Book Lounge or LIASA, a professional non-profit organisation, uniting and representing all institutions and people working in libraries and information services in South Africa. LIASA organises many events throughout the year to promote libraries such as South African Library Week, LIASA MAY Seminar, South African Librarians Day or LIASA National Conference.

According to the current national public relations officer, Senovia Welman, the Central Library is ‘comfortable, well-designed library’ and ‘should have something for everyone, based on the needs of the community (…) collaborating with local organisations such as schools and local businesses.’

She stresses the importance of the library as ‘the rare place where there’s no pressure to pay for anything (except the occasional fine on an overdue book), which is very attractive for non-income patrons.’ In South Africa where many inhabitants still do not have access to information, libraries can make a difference to the quality of their lives or circumstances.

However, the budget is still tight and prevents the library from moving as fast as Linda would like. She wishes she could afford to hire more employees to lighten their shifts, create a more functional building, ideally open the library on Sundays and keep the library up to date with the rest of the digital world.

Central Library has many computers, free Wi-Fi and an efficient online-lending system but digitisation is not available yet and e-books cannot be loaned. However, there is an electronic database where people can access 50 South African titles online, the SABINET software (where laws and all the government gazettes are searchable) and a press display where you can download magazines to your smartphone to read at home.

‘There’s a need now to move to digital,’ explains Linda, ‘it’s accessible everywhere. You don’t need to come to the building. The e-books also work out cheaper than the hard books. I’ve worked with e-books and I love them.’

‘There’s a need now to move to digital,’ explains Linda, ‘it’s accessible everywhere. You don’t need to come to the building. The e-books also work out cheaper than the hard books. I’ve worked with e-books and I love them.’ If digitisation actually settles in the library, fewer people might visit the library but it doesn’t seem to bother Linda. To her, what’s most important is that people keep on reading, no matter where they are and what they use to do so.

The Central Library contains books written in all the 11 official languages of South Africa as well as a diverse selection of African authors. A tribute not only to the Rainbow Nation but to the continent’s literary diversity as well. Photo: Laure Perrier

E-reading could actually resolve the crowdedness of the library. It often becomes too congested and noisy, disturbing the serious researchers or irritating the fiction lovers. ‘The balance to satisfy such a broad community isn’t always easy to find and can become exhausting,’ says Stacey.

In the end, it is all a question of balance. Balance between the hard books and the e-resources, between playful events and community outreach, between quiet fiction readers and loud excited students or children, between a historical institution and a modern digitalised place.

However, looking at the kids captivated by a storyteller in the children’s library, a serious student focusing on a huge textbook, a dreamer listening to CDs in the music corner or a retired couple reading the newspaper, it seems like the library manages to satisfy this broad crowd very well. And after all, isn’t it the everlasting aim of public libraries: to create a physical and cultural shelter where just anybody can feel welcome, safe, interested and comfortable?